The Decline of David: Sexual Sin leading to Civil War (2 Samuel 11:1-12:15)
Introduction: The Danger of Being at Ease
At ease, men! There is a danger in that. It is our times of ease, when our guard is down, that temptation can sneak upon us.
Late at night, when you are tired, after a hard week. You might start channel or web surfing, and you might find yourself watching something that you never would if your guard is up.
So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall! (1 Corinthians 10:12 NIV)
Humanly speaking, wasn’t that Goliath’s problem? The great soldier who had fought in many wars thought little David wasn’t a threat, with his sling and pebbles. He was secure in the knowledge of his size and strength.
Similarly, sin can catch us off guard and ensnare us unaware (compare Galatians 6:1).
Colin Buchanan’s got a great song. Sin is like a great big crocodile, sin is a dangerous trap. Sin can creep up like a crocodile, all of a sudden, ‘SNAP’.
The devil’s usual mode of operation is the surprise attack, when we are least expecting. Think of the damage it did at Pearl Harbour, or even Sydney Harbour, or on September 11 or the Bali Bombings. And it does similar damage in the spiritual lives of Christian men and women.
Often the most dangerous thing for us is not the full frontal assault from the outside. It is often the insidious white anting from the inside. Drip, drip, drip. Did God really say? Aren’t you a bit narrow in your thinking? Don’t you need to broaden your mind? Be a little more charitable, a little more kind? Surely Jesus would want that? Drip, drip, drip. It is the way water wears away rock. You hardly see it happening. But sure enough, after a long enough time, it does the same job as C4.
David’s Adultery and Murder (2 Samuel 11)
The great King David is at ease. God has given him rest from his enemies on all sides. He’s got a lovely new palace. After years of running and fighting, he now is at rest. And we read, 2 Samuel chapter 11 verse 1:
In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king's men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem. (NIV)
It’s a pretty innocuous verse. Why not? David deserves a bit of a break. Send out his trusty general. He’s only taking his long service leave, after all.
David is at ease. Perhaps he should have gone out to fight. But he didn’t. Verses 2 to 3:
One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, and David sent someone to find out about her. (NIV)
David couldn’t sleep. He got up to take an afternoon walk around the roof, to look at his kingdom. Here is the city that I have built, the kingdom that God has given me. I am King of all of this, as far as my eye can see.
And then he sees one of his subjects. She wasn’t wearing much. And she was easy on the eye. David liked what he saw.
I’m feeling a bit lonely. Maybe she could join my harem. How many is too many, anyway? What’s one more? I’m doing her a favour, anyway, introducing her to a higher rung of society.
All this is sinful because it is greedy. David had more than enough wives already. David could have turned away at this point, with a word of self rebuke.
But he didn’t. He pursued this unnamed woman. He sent off his minions to find out about her. And they come back and say, the second part of verse 3
"Isn't this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" (NIV)
'Darn it. What bad luck. She’s married already. And to Uriah, one of my best troops.' And again, David could have again turned away, and left off the pursuit. He could have said, ‘Well, isn’t Uriah a lucky boy. Good on him.’
But he didn’t. The middle aged King is turning into a dirty old man.
Who knows how he rationalised his next step to himself. ‘I’ll just get to know her a bit, at night. She must be lonely, her husband far away. She could use a bit of male company. Hey, I’m King, after all. She is my subject. I would never do such a thing. I’m above falling into all that.
Whatever his thought processes, his pathetic justifications, David stands on the brink of disaster.
Our modern television shows and movies glorify the illicit sexual relation. They are cleverly designed to make the viewers want the adultery or fornication to occur. Not so the bible. The bible tells us the tragic failure of God’s Christ without any steamy sex scenes. There is no R or MA rating as they get their clothes off. There is only the mildly PG comment of verses 4 to 5:
Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (She had purified herself from her uncleanness.) Then she went back home. The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, "I am pregnant." (NIV)
There is the sin, in all its simplicity. David’s lust broke the 10th commandment, ‘Do not covet’. David had committed adultery in his heart. The actual sex broke the seventh commandment, ‘Do not commit adultery’ and the eighth, ‘Do not steal’.
And moreover, there is the little problem of the illicit pregnancy. And here, we see how one sin leads to another. David desperately tries to cover up his sin. David piles sin upon sin in his endeavor to hide his sin.
Plan A, is to try to make Uriah think that the child was his. So King David sends for Uriah to return, on pretext of getting information about the war (2 Samuel 11:6-9). David hopes Uriah will go home and have sex with his wife. A reasonable plan, as far as cover ups go. But Uriah is a noble warrior. Uriah won’t allow himself to enjoy home comforts when his brothers-in-arms face death (verses 10-11). So Plan A fails.
But David is cunning, and in a corner. So Plan B is hatched. David gets Uriah drunk, in the hope that the wine will soften his resolve, in the hope that Uriah goes and sleeps with his wife. But no. Uriah drunk is still a noble warrior. He will not go down to his house. Uriah drunk is more righteous than David sober (verses 12 to 13). Plan B fails.
So Plan C is a merciless, cold, calculated killing. David will remove Uriah as a problem. Verses 14 to 15:
In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. In it he wrote, "Put Uriah in the front line where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so that he will be struck down and die." (NIV)
And off goes Uriah, the loyal soldier, carrying the letter that seals his death. Who knows what Joab thought? What evil has Uriah committed, that our Righteous King wants him executed? And so David broke the sixth commandment, do not murder, and the ninth, do not bear false witness against your neighbor.
David’s cover up has succeeded. After all, he could hide himself for years and years from Saul, couldn’t he? What about hiding a little affair? Sinful ministers do it. Our politicians do it. Famous celebrities do it. Verse 27:
After the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing David had done displeased the LORD. (NIV)
After the sin, then what? David seemed to forget that God had seen it all, in all its disgusting detail. David himself knew that you can’t run or hide from God. The darkness is not dark to God (Psalm 139:8-12). Because sin makes us forget God and reality.
What is sin, but living in a dreamworld, without thought of consequences or the wrath and judgment of God. ‘But it seems so right, but it feels so good.’ But in the end, God sees, God knows, and God will punish.
David’s Conviction of Sin and Forgiveness (2 Samuel 12:1-9, 13, Psalm 51)
David has only become King because God has raised him to that office. He has ridden on the back of God’s favour to Jerusalem. And now, verse 27, the thing David has done has displeased Yahweh, who said ‘Do not murder, Do not Commit Adultery’.
But so far, the sin is secret. Only David, Bathsheba, and Joab know. And of course, God knows…. Ahh yes, God knows. There is no secret sin. To God, every sin is before his eyes. And David is living in a fool’s paradise. For God has unfinished business with David. He might have escaped men. But God cannot be fooled.
The encounter of David with Nathan the Prophet has one design. God wants David to convict himself of his own sin with his own mouth. Yahweh sends Nathan with a parable. A rich man owns a flock of sheep, a poor man just one little lamb, nursed in his arms (2 Samuel 12:1). And the rich man of course steals the lamb and cooks it up for a guest.
David rightly applies the Old Testament law. The soul that sins shall die. 2 Samuel 12 verses 5 to 6:
David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, "As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this deserves to die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity." Then Nathan said to David, "You are the man!" (NIV)
Exodus chapter 22 verse 1 says that the man who steals a sheep should pay back fourfold. But David knows he deserves worse. The wrongdoer showed no pity and deserved to die. And that man is David. Leviticus chapter 20 verse 10:
If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress are to be put to death. (NIV)
Again, Numbers chapter 35 verse 31:
Do not accept a ransom for the life of a murderer, who deserves to die. They are to be put to death. (NIV)
David deserves to die. David condemned himself with his own mouth. He despised the Lord, struck down Uriah, and took his wife.
We’ve already seen God ditch a King. Saul disobeyed Yahweh, and God took his Spirit from Saul. Is the same thing going to happen to David? Are we going to have another King, another dynasty, instead of David’s. After all, Saul’s sin seems less serious than David’s. All Saul did, at one level, was let some livestock live. But David has committed adultery and murder. If Saul was rejected, how much more should David be rejected?
And the answer is ‘no’. David stays. God has made a promise from which he will not repent.
It’s not as if God says, ‘Oh, I didn’t really know David had it in him.’ Of course God knew. God knows everything, the beginning from the end. He knew David would betray and murder Uriah.
But God can have mercy on whom he wants. God can use whatever sinful human he chooses to use to save his people. And God has chosen the sinful David. So God will utterly keep his promise.
David confesses, chapter 12 verse 13:
"I have sinned against the LORD." Nathan replied, "The LORD has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. (NIV)
Nathan's word 'the Lord has taken away your sin, you are not going to die' must have come as a great relief to David. Because the Old Testament Law had no way of forgiving this sin. This was a covenant breaking sin, a sin with a high hand. The law strictly demanded David’s death. For the blood of bulls and goats couldn’t atone for this sin. In Psalm 51:16, David says, ‘You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it.’ There was no sacrifice of the law that could take away David's sin. The sacrifices of the law could only deal with sins of ignorance and weakness. But there was no ignorance and weakness in David’s acts of adultery and murder. He did it all with his eyes wide open. This was arrogance and sin against knowledge without pity. The Old Covenant had no provision to deal with this sin except death.
But God goes beyond law to grace. The LORD has taken away David’s sin, and David with not die. No wonder David rejoices in God forgiveness. No wonder David says in Psalm 32:
Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord does not count against them (Psalm 32:1-2 NIV).
The consequences of David’s Sin (2 Samuel 12:10-12, 14-31; Chapters 13-24)
David is forgiven. But the sin will have consequences. David’s life will never be the same after the sin. When the Christ sins, everyone suffers. That’s just the way life is. We are interconnected. 2 Samuel chapter 1 verse 10-12:
Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.' (NIV)
And so the later tragedies in David’s family are directly related to David’s sin. David’s son Amnon rapes his half sister Tamar (2 Samuel 13:1-22). And in revenge, David’s son Absalom kills his half brother, Amnon (2 Samuel 13:23-33) And soon enough, Absalom initiates a civil war against his father. Absalom sleeps with 10 of his Father’s concubines on the palace roof. All this fulfills the words of 2 Samuel chapter 12 verses 11 and 12:
This is what the LORD says: ‘Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity upon you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will lie with your wives in broad daylight. You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.’ (NIV)
And all Israel is involved in a civil war. David has to leave Jerusalem in shame (2 Samuel 13:34-20:26). And even after Absalom’s death, then Sheba son of Bicri rises up to cause problem. And when David deals with him, the Philistines bounce back and threaten Israel. (2 Samuel 21:15-22). The sword never departs from David’s kingship. Because David’s success came from his obedience to Yahweh. But now Yahweh is disciplining David for his sin.
Sin has its consequences, and they are far and wide. Especially when the sinner is the leader. The leader’s sins are magnified and the consequences are visited on the people.
Does it matter if a minister sins? Yes, it does. If a minister steals, or commits adultery, who suffers? All the people of God, not least his family.
Does it matter if a politician or minister of the crown sins? Yes, it does. For the whole country looks to their example for leadership. And then people say, ‘Look what they can get away with! What’s wrong with me taking a little here, cutting a corner there. They’re all doing it!’
But for David, there is an immediate consequence, a judgment, that will serve as a sign that more waves of disaster are coming. Verses 14 and 15:
‘But because by doing this you have made the enemies of the LORD show utter contempt, the son born to you will die.’ After Nathan had gone home, the LORD struck the child that Uriah's wife had borne to David, and he became ill. (NIV)
The sins of the father are visited upon the son. The little child dies. And by this David knows that his happy situation of rest is no more. By his sin, he has forfeited rest in the land, just as Yahweh said. And now, David must wait for the coming kingdom of his greater Son, King Jesus, for rest. For David, only the Kingdom of heaven will be a haven. Once more David he will run and fight.
It seems unfair, that the baby boy dies, doesn’t it? But it is only as unfair as any miscarriage or stillbirth. And it is certainly more fair than the many abortions practiced today. That is truly unfair, that humans take the life of their baby because the baby’s life is inconvenient. So warped is our society that Hazel Hawke is paraded before us as a saint of feminism because she had an abortion so Bob could go to Oxford (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazel_Hawke).
But nothing God ever does is unfair. For none of us have a right to live. It is God’s gift to give. And God gives the gift of life to some and not to others.
Anyway, it is only the atheist who thinks that this life is all there is. If there is no God, there is no fair or unfair. There’s just the survival of the fittest. There’s just might makes right.
But for us, who believe in God who raises the dead, this world is not the end. The atheist who complains it is unfair only offers cruel natural selection in God’s place. But a God who raises the dead offers this little boy a much better future. Indeed, this little baby’s future is much better than the vast majority of our intellectual leaders, who reject Jesus. For we have the promise of 1 Corinthians 7:14, that the child of at least one believer is holy. We have a God who raises the dead. And we believe that all the infants of believers will be in God’s new heaven and earth. All those children of believers who’ve died in the womb or who’ve died in infancy are covered by the faith of the parents.
For though David’s little boy was conceived as a result of sin, he too is a child of the covenant and of the promise. The promise is for you and your children. We have a Jesus not only who rose from the dead, but who said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.’
Just think about heaven. Heaven will be a strange place, won’t it? This little baby boy will be there, who died because of his father, David’s, sin. Uriah, the victim of David’s sin will be there. For everything we know about him testifies to his faith in Yahweh. Bathsheeba, as far as we know, will be there, despite her sin. And David, the sinning Christ, will be there. For he repented, as Psalm 51 testifies. He knew the blessedness of forgiveness, as Psalm 32 testifies. Repentance and forgiveness restores these relationships into eternity. Uriah, Bathsheeba, David, and the unnamed infant, will all be in Christ’s kingdom, completely reconciled. And so to will you and I, if we continue in faith in Christ. And the people we’ve wronged and hurt, who’ve found forgiveness in Christ, they’ll be there. And the people who’ve hurt us, who’ve found forgiveness in Christ, they’ll be there, too. No murder or adulterer will be there who hasn’t repented. But all who’ve repented, like David, and believed in God and his Christ, like David, will be there, in spite of their awful sin, because of the blood of Jesus Christ.
That is a good reason to live in peace with others, as far as it depends on you. That’s a good reason to put it right with those who’ve wronged you, if you can. And it's a good reason to forgive those who’ve wronged you, and leave room for God’s wrath, and pray for them, that they would repent.
Conclusion
David shows us that no one wins with sin. Sin, particularly adultery, is a bad deal. Because you have to ask the question, ‘After the sin, then what?’ You had better enjoy those few minutes of sin. Because for the rest of your life you have to live with the dreadful consequences of your wickedness, even if God grants you repentance.
And God will ensure that you won’t get away with it. God was there, he saw, he watched, he knows. And God will judge it, either for an eternity in hell. Or if not, thankfully, and you are wonderfully forgiven, you will have to bear the consequences of it for the rest of your days here on earth.
Remember the teaching of Proverbs about adultery. The best case scenario for the adulterer is this:
At the end of your life you will groan, when your flesh and body are spent. You will say, “How I hated discipline! How my heart spurned correction! I would not obey my teachers or turn my ear to my instructors. And I was soon in serious trouble in the assembly of God’s people.” (Proverbs 5:11-14 NIV)
That’s the best, because the person has at least seen their stupidity. And the worst case scenario is that the adulterer will harden their heart and not repent, and so end up in hell. Because it was a miracle that David repented.
May we live the wise, sensible life and flee sexual sin.
Let’s pray.